15 magical things to do in the fall.

Turtleneck. (similar here.) Vest. Jeans. (similar.) Boots. Sunglasses.

I wrote this post last year and it’s one of my most popular.  It was so much fun to write too because fall activities are my favorite, so  I thought I would re-share it again today.   Here are 15 magical things to do in the fall, I hope you enjoy!

Fall is my favorite time of year, I love the feeling in the air and earth, and all the cozy nights and blustery days.  But my favorite thing about fall is all the wonderful things there are to do with my little family.   Here are 15 of my favorite magical things to do in the fall…

1.Go Apple Picking.  This is my very favorite fall activity of all time. (which is why it’s first on the list) It would be great fun with just adults, but with children, it’s absolute magic.  I love going early in the season (late September/ early October) so we have a huge bushel of apples the entire fall… you’ll see why in a minute.

2. Rake Leaves: I know it sounds like a chore, but rake up a big ole’ pile of leaves and then jump in them.  When I was a kid, my cousins, siblings and I used to do this at my grandparents house.   They had a whole bunch of giant cheery trees in the back yard and we’d rake up all the leaves into a giant pile and spend hours jumping into it.  One of my favorite memories ever.  Bonus: at the end we gathered them all up into big garbage sacks and saved my Grandpa a chore.

3. Make Apple Pie:  Take some of those apples you picked yourself earlier in the season and make a pie!  On Sunday my kids and I baked two big homemade apple pies.  The hours we spent peeling and slicing the apples together made them taste even better when they were done, and there’s nothing like being tucked in a cozy house on a blustery day baking pies. Plus, I think fall should smell like apple spice and this will definitely make your house smell amazing.  If you don’t have 4 little extra sets of hands for help, you might want to consider picking up one of these, and one of these.  There’s a million amazing apple pie recipes out there (seriously, just look at pinterest) but I always go back to the same one in my BHG Cookbook I’ve had since we got married.  If I could only buy one cookbook for the rest of my life, that would be it.  Every woman should have one in her kitchen.

4. Bake Bread: There’s a lot of baking that goes into a magical fall… ;-) I love to make my french bread all fall long and eat it with home made soup just about every night…  If you’re going to make bread, even fairly often (or cookies, muffins, etc for that matter) you really need to have a stand mixer in your kitchen.  I’m hopelessly devoted to my kitchen aid.  They come in a million gorgeous colors (bonus), work like a dream, and in 12 years of hard mixing work, almost constant use and many moves, mine still hasn’t quit.  That’s quality.  Bonus if you take your loaf of bread to a sick neighbor or someone who just needs a little cheering up.

5. Visit a pumpkin patch: This is a tradition from my childhood and it’s been one of our favorite fall traditions now that I have my own family.  There are so many U-pick pumpkin patches to choose from and I think it’s really fun for the kids to find their own pumpkin right off the vine.

6. Go on a hayride. It’s fall, there should be hayrides… My kids get such a kick out of this.  (So do I if I’m being honest.)

7. Fly a kite: I know it seems like a summer activity, but those blustery fall days are perfect for kite flying and it’s really fun to be outside bundled up flying kites this time of year.  If you are from Seattle, go to a beach park at the sound and fly a kite, it’s even more magical.  My favorites are at: Alki, Edmonds, and Golden Gardens.

Boots: Mine and Hannah’s. Ava’s.

8. Make caramel apples: another way to use those apples you picked!  Plus, caramel apples.  Mmmmm.  We’ve used a crock pot to warm the caramel and then dip the apples in.  Yum.

9. Go to a football game!  College games or even peewee and high school games are fun this time of year.  Grab a thermos of hot cocoa and your favorite flannel blanket to bundle up in…

10. Make homemade chili:  I use my crock pot almost constantly during the fall. (hello fix it and forget it.)  I love making soup but my favorite is making homemade chili in the fall and letting it simmer all day making the house smell amazing and the flavors cooking up so great together.  It’s fun to bundle up and eat it outside at a park or even in the back yard.

11. Carve Pumpkins: We love to do this the day before Halloween, or on halloween day if it’s on a Saturday.   Always so fun to see what my kids come up with and watch their creativity come to life. Bonus, rinse off those pumpkin seeds and roast them in the oven with a little salt.  Mmmmm…

12. Make apple butter: again from the apples you picked.  This is so easy, its shocking and I made it in my crock pot.  My whole house smelled amazing for a few days.

13. Do a neighborhood coat drive for your local clothing bank:  We did this last year.  It was really, really special and really taught my kids to think of others.  This time of year clothing banks really need warm clothes and coats.

14. Go for a hike: The fall is one of our favorite times to go for a hike as a family.  The leaves changing make it so much more beautiful and dreamy.

15. Watch Hocus Pocus and Charlie Brown’s The Great Pumpkin.  The two best Halloween movies for kids ever made.  But I still love watching them both, even as an adult.  We always watch these on Halloween night, and usually a couple times in the month leading up to it.